Reviews shape buying decisions — a strong TrustPilot rating is one of the most persuasive assets your business has. The challenge is prompting genuinely happy customers to leave one. A personalised handwritten note is a rare, low-cost intervention that meaningfully moves the needle, and it scales through Penned.
The power of surprise & delight
Surprise and delight means going above and beyond the expected — showing customers they matter through a memorable, personal gesture. The two qualities are the whole point: it should be surprising (unprompted, unexpected) and personal (clearly meant for them). A handwritten note is both by nature.
Where it fits in the customer journey
Customers move through five broad stages, and a note lands hardest in the last two:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Retention — vital for cultivating loyal customers
- Advocacy — where reviews and referrals happen
Turning a note into a review
The workflow is straightforward to set up and run at scale:
- Create your campaign in the Penned dashboard.
- Choose a design — an A6 note works perfectly for this.
- Write a personalised message using variable placeholders like {{first_name}} and your agent's name.
- Add recipients manually, by CSV, or automatically via our API.
Timing is the secret. Arrange the note to arrive just before your review request, so a customer's most recent interaction with your brand is positive and personal — which significantly increases the likelihood of a favourable review.
Building it into your workflow
Once it's connected to your systems, the whole sequence runs itself: a customer completes an action, that triggers Penned to write and post the note, and the review request follows while the good impression is still fresh. You get the warmth of a personal gesture with the consistency of an automated process.